BRATTLEBORO — How many of us understand the extent to which the British Petroleum oil spill has disrupted the lives of families?
Months later, when the oil spill is no longer hitting the headlines, the shrimpers' boats sit idle in harbors, and thousands of fisherman have lost their jobs. Feed the Children trucks move into the cities with hundreds of clamoring children.
A reporter on NPR speaks of these Gulf Coast fishermen as the last of the hunter/gatherers who feel they must be responsible for themselves and their families. These sturdy, self-reliant men are the last to go for help to a mental health clinic; in small towns on the Gulf of Mexico, there is a stigma against going to speak to a therapist.
“God feeds the birds. I tell myself this every day, and he loves us more than the birds,” a woman says. The woman has just been told that there were 800 tickets distributed for 800 boxes of food, and that there is none left for her family.
Leo and Erin Hoofer live in Gulfport, Miss. They have two little boys. They were living an ordinary life, just like you or me and now, with no warning, find themselves stripped of Leo's ability to earn a living, to pay the mortgage, to meet the car payments, to pay utility bills.
A normal family who made enough to survive is now split up. The mother and the boys live with Erin's mother, and Leo lives alone on his shrimp boat. He broke a window and had a terrible fit of temper, but he does not know where it came from.
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What is wrong with this picture?
Another megalithic oil corporation that makes billions of dollars has ecologically damaged the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico. The birds, the fish, the clams, the shrimp, the mussels are dying. Black tar balls wash onto the beaches, and Leo Hoefer does not know where his fit of temper came from.
Obviously, it came from rage at the inability to take control of the situation; rage erupts from feeling helpless to fix a situation.
How many of us can identify with Leo, who held it all together while fighting in Iraq and came home to Gulfport, Miss., to find himself the victim of a corporation and with no recourse or redemption?
He, like the rest of us, is the last person to beg for help, since he takes pride in being self-reliant. Self-reliance and resilience, independence and courage are qualities of pride for Americans of any community, color, or religion. These qualities are being tested severely by the high rate of unemployment in America in 2011.
We have had enough discussions about whom to blame or how this occurred; we have had more than enough lies in print and from the mouths of politicians telling us how much the economy is improving.
Whatever anyone says, you can't get around the fact that you need a job to pay for heat, mortgage, and utilities.
The federal government deals with crisis after crisis and handles all of them in a piecemeal manner. Even a child knows when something is broken. Every adult knows inflation is getting worse each day as trillions of freshly printed bills roll off the presses.
When it is time to examine the difference between what we need and what we want?
When it is time to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, to fix the problems in our own country instead of acting like the rich uncle to other countries?
What are we going to do to fix the public schools in cities like Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago? What are we doing to do to clean up the water we need to drink in order to survive?
Where does rhetoric end and action begin?
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It begins in Vermont.
• Individuals here work with others in their communities to transition from dependence on the federal government, to live in a post-oil world, to guarantee that children eat healthy food from local farmers, and to clean up the rivers and the air.
• Lisa Lampe, a mother in Putney, starts a healthy snack program for the Putney Central School.
• The Write Action board of directors creates an anthology for writers in Vermont.
• A woman on Main Street in Brattleboro asks strangers to join a program where they can barter their talents for services they need instead of paying money.
• Amy Powling realizes a thrift store makes sense in this economy and opens one in Townsend so people can bring in clothes in good condition and turn them into cash or credit.
• The couple who owns the Misty Valley Bookstore in Chester, in spite of the fact that they have a hard time competing with amazon.com, promotes free readings by new young writers.
• The members of the Brattleboro Food Co-op work together to get the funds for a new, larger building and hold free lectures and yoga classes right at the cooperative.
• The Hooker-Dunham Theater is willing to rent space at a reasonable cost.
• Volunteers work for months to produce the yearly Women's Film Festival.
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One of my students asked the class if anyone knew why geese fly in a V formation.
He told us that any goose in the flock is free to make its way to the head of the V and use its strength to open up the air currents. The V shape helps the entire flock move as one, smoothly and swiftly, to reach their destination, but it takes a physical toll on the lead. So as soon as the temporary leader, who has stepped up to do the job for the sake of the flock, gets tired, another goose flying in the back moves forward and takes the leader's spot.
Leaders are interchangeable; they are volunteers to serve the needs of the flock. What a far cry from 2011, where only people who are millionaires can afford to run for office and spent millions on campaigns.
The words for the good of the flock ring clear as a bell. None of us should have more importance or weight than another, whether you are the president of the United States or Leo Hoefer.
We all have the same basic needs and the right to live decent lives. This right is given by God, not by any government.
Back to the flock of geese: What would happen if we used our basic instincts and took turns leading the flock for the good of the flock, not the greed of the individual?